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A University of Maryland team has used a toll-like receptor 4 antagonist to treat influenza in mice. The results provide a repurposing opportunity for Eisai's TLR4 blocker Eritoran, originally developed for sepsis, and…
Published on 5/16/2013
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Eritoran insight for influenza treatment Figure 1. Proposed model of Eritoran-mediated protection in influenza infection. Oxidized phospholipids, produced in response to viral infection, are proposed to bind to CD14 …
Published on 5/16/2013
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MSKCC researchers have identified a mutation in the androgen receptor that drives resistance to second-generation antiandrogen drugs such as Medivation's Xtandi. The team is testing a lead molecule that overcomes this …
Published on 5/9/2013
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Researchers at Harvard have discovered a hormone that promotes pancreatic islet beta cell proliferation in mice. Partner companies Evotec and Johnson & Johnson have rights to the molecule and plan to turn it into a …
Published on 5/2/2013
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Boston researchers have detailed a new class of regulatory elements, dubbed super-enhancers, that control the expression of genes, including oncogenes, that are key to determining cellular identity. The team has founded…
Published on 4/25/2013
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Researchers from the University of Oslo and Roche's Genentech Inc. unit have developed several selective inhibitors of tankyrases TNKS and TNKS2, two druggable targets in the otherwise hard-to-hit WNT pathway. The lead …
Published on 4/18/2013
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Cover Story: Targeting tankyrase Figure 1. Targeting tankyrase to treat tumors. Lau et al. and Voronkov et al. have shown that small molecule inhibitors of tankyrase TRF1-interacting ankyrin-related ADP-ribose …
Published on 4/18/2013
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Just 15 months after RET fusions were first identified in 1%-2% of NSCLC cases, early data from a Phase II trial of Exelixis' Cometriq suggest that blocking the target could be effective in this patient population. At …
Published on 4/11/2013
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RET, set, go . Box 1. Squamous smorgasbord. Although Ret proto-oncogene fusions offer the most promising example for how recent genomic analyses of lung cancer have identified newly actionable oncogenic alterations,…
Published on 4/11/2013
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RET, set, go Table 1. Selected new targeted therapies in lung cancer. At least 12 clinical trials are testing or plan to test tyrosine kinase inhibitors with activity against recently identified oncogenic drivers of …
Published on 4/11/2013
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GlaxoSmithKline and its Tempero spinout have identified selective, first-in-class inhibitors of class IIa HDACs. The companies plan to study the trifluoromethyloxadiazole molecules in autoimmune disease.
Published on 4/4/2013
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A Dana-Farber-led team has found that MYCN amplification provides a marker for sensitivity to BET bromodomain inhibition in neuroblastomas. GSK is using the marker as one criterion to select patients for a Phase I trial…
Published on 3/28/2013
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Boston researchers have shown how cancer genome evolution alters clinical outcomes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and a Michigan team has identified a new transcriptional fusion that could contribute to CLL. Both …
Published on 3/21/2013
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Two European teams have shown that circular RNAs are widely expressed in humans and have regulatory functions, although their biomedical relevance remains to be established. However, the continuing emergence of links …
Published on 3/14/2013
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U.S. researchers have shown that 2-hydroxyglutarate, a known marker for various cancers, directly drives leukemic transformation. Blocking its overproduction with a small molecule from Agios could reverse the leukogenic…
Published on 3/7/2013
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Researchers at Prosetta Antiviral have used an in vitro screen to identify small molecules targeting the host-catalyzed capsid assembly pathway for the rabies virus. The biotech has partnered with Bristol-Myers to use …
Published on 2/28/2013
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Cover Story: Targeting viral capsid assembly Figure 1. Proposed rabies capsid-assembly pathway. Rabies viral proteins are translated by the ribosome (I[a]). The rabies phosphoprotein (blue) associates with …
Published on 2/28/2013
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Researchers at Roche's Genentech unit have shown that neuregulin 1 can drive resistance to chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancers. The team suggests countering resistance by hitting the kinase ligand and a pair of …
Published on 2/21/2013
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NRG1 meets resistance Figure 1. Neuregulin signaling in chemotherapy-resistant lung cancer. Hegde et al. have uncovered a mechanism for chemotherapy resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In NSCLC tumors,…
Published on 2/21/2013
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An Institute of Cancer Research team has developed a computational algorithm that hones in on cancer targets with the desired mix of biological validation and druggability. The approach could help prioritize targets.
Published on 2/14/2013
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2012 gets a new deal Figure 1. Business areas covered by 2012 public-private partnerships. Breakdown of therapeutic areas covered by public-private partnerships (PPPs; I) and seed or series A financings (III) in 2012…
Published on 2/7/2013
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2012 gets a new deal Figure 2. Regional breakdown of public-private partnerships in 2012 and 2011. Number of disclosed public-private partnerships (PPPs) worldwide in the respective year. Data includes double …
Published on 2/7/2013
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2012 gets a new deal Figure 3. Further regional breakdown of public-private partnerships. Regional breakdown of companies and institutions involved in public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the top five U.S. states (I…
Published on 2/7/2013
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2012 gets a new deal Table 1. Largest series A financing rounds for companies founded in 2012. Four of the largest series A rounds for biotechs founded in 2012 went to companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area. …
Published on 2/7/2013
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2012 gets a new deal Table 2. Leaders in the number of public-private partnerships. The NIH and European Commission took the top positions with respect to the number of disclosed public-private partnerships (PPPs) in…
Published on 2/7/2013